DHRhoads

Most articles I see lately deal with assessment or curriculum. I agree that having a curriculum that clearly identifies what students are expected to know and be able and to do at the completion of each course or grade level is essential. I also agree that assessments should be planned prior to instruction and assessment data should be analyzed by teaching teams and used to drive instruction. However, what happened to recognizing the importance instruction?

I believe a common lesson plan or schema model should be used throughout a school for instruction. The lesson model should create a common language for discussion of instruction and best practice of presenting information. The lesson schema will aid understanding of instruction for ESL students and the spectrum of mild to moderate special needs learners. Solid instruction includes: 1/objective 2/access prior knowledge 3/present new information 4/application 5/closure. Those five steps might have variations in terms of what each section is labeled in a district or school, but the basic lesson steps should hold form for cooperative learning to inquiry to direct instruction. The only variation would be in the amount of time allotted for each phase of the lesson.

Creating learning outcomes based on clear and compelling curriculum targets should be commonplace practice in highly functioning schools. However, just as needed is a shared lesson plan format for creating a common language and understanding of instructional strategies that will help students retain and apply information for long periods of time. Even when the curriculum is established and the assessment outcomes are determined in advance of instruction, engaging instruction based a clear lesson schema might be the single biggest ingredient to ensuring student achievement throughout the school.

Trust in schools has been shown to directly relate to student achievement. Reflecting on trust and its relation to organizational structure is an interesting exercise. Recall that human relation research for decades has investigated performance impact when structure is modified. Follow this line of thinking and we arrive at a crucial question: do we trust our staff and students enough to give them access to the Internet? The following graphic from Scott McLeod drives the question into our face.

I first watched the Starkville, MS School District’s “Believe” video on Kim Caise’s blog. The video captures the essence of my personal philosophy of education. Due to starting the job search process, I have been updating my philosophy of ed. Here’s my opening paragraph: I went into education because of teachers. Teachers taught me academic skills and helped develop my self-confidence. I was fortunate to have teachers that perceived me as capable and communicated that expectation to me. As an educational leader, I seek to “give back” by working to develop outstanding school experiences for all students, where teachers believe in their ability to reach even the most disadvantaged students. My core beliefs regarding schooling include a belief that schools should have great teachers, that schools should be safe communities where learning is of prime importance, and that decision making should be guided by the fundamental question of “is it good for kids?” I believe each individual child deserves the best opportunity to learn that the school can provide. Every child is capable of learning, and it is the responsibility of the school to help each child find success. I firmly believe in the power of schools to impact a child’s life. I am honored to be an educator, and I love working with school stakeholders to make the world a better place one child at a time.